First it starts with a comedy video which turns into this weird creepy thing about kids running through the Paris sewers, encountering an alligator, then getting rowed out and into the Seine by a ghost and it cuts to reality and all the nations are going down the river on boats past a bunch of water jets because they're not doing this in a stadium.
This looks awful and ridiculous. Compare this to the spectacle of London 2012.
Now they're doing some weird old Hollywood movie musical style musical number with Lady Gaga and she's on a staircase, which is... somewhere in Paris?
I am so fucking confused.
Edit: They just cut to Macron and he looks as confused as I am.
It was at first. After five minutes, it had lost anything that made it impressive to me.
The best part so far for me has been the montages of previous Olympics. Those were terrific.
Right now, I'm feeling sorry for a lady who has to stand there and hold an umbrella over the guy speaking.
I think the problem there is by spreading it out along the Seine it became a little more challenging to balance the presentation for viewers on TV than for people actually watching in person. It takes time for a boat to get from up by Notre Dame all the way down to the Eiffel Tower/Trocadero where the dignitaries were. If they were in a stadium like normal they would’ve just had the horse do a lap and it would’ve been done in a couple minutes because everyone saw it at the same time. Overall I liked it, but I can see how that would get old for some people.